Norway Grading System Explained
A–F Letter Grades (A is best, E is minimum pass)
How do grades from Norway convert to US GPA?
A Bachelor's / first-degree grade — for graduate (Master's) admission or employment
Got a school-leaving qualification instead — A-levels, Class 12, WASSCE, the Abitur? Here's what actually happens to those.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Enter a grade above to see what it means in the United States
You'll get the classification it corresponds to, the range it falls in rather than a single false-precise number, and how firm that answer is.
How does the Norway grading system work?
Norwegian universities use A–F letter grades where A is highest and E is minimum pass. F is fail. Enter A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1, F=0.
Norwegian universities use an A–F letter scale on the ECTS model, where A is excellent and E is the minimum pass — F is the only failing grade.
That E-is-a-pass detail catches out readers from systems where anything below a C or a 50% fails, and it means the passing range is wider than it appears.
Some Norwegian courses are assessed pass or fail (bestått / ikke bestått) rather than graded, and both kinds of entry appear on the same transcript without that indicating anything is missing.
What does each grade mean in Norway?
| Range | Classification | ≈ US GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | A (Excellent) | 4.0 |
| 4 | B (Very Good) | 3.3 |
| 3 | C (Good) | 2.7 |
| 2 | D (Satisfactory) | 2.3 |
| 1 | E (Sufficient) | 1.7 |
| 0 | F (Fail) | — |
What does a good grade actually look like in Norway?
The A–F letters look immediately familiar to American readers, and that familiarity is misleading in one specific way: the Norwegian scale is criterion-referenced against ECTS definitions, where C is explicitly described as a good result meeting the standard expected — not the mediocre grade a C signals in the United States. A Norwegian B is a strong result. Anyone converting letter-for-letter into a US GPA will systematically understate a Norwegian transcript.
How do WES and other evaluators read grades from Norway?
Norwegian A → 4.0 GPA. B (Very Good) → approximately 3.3 GPA.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Norway ECTS A–F scale (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse (HK-dir), Norway · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
Is a degree from Norway accepted abroad?
Norwegian bachelor's degrees run three years under Bologna, followed by a two-year master's. Public universities charge no tuition to most students, and admission is correspondingly competitive on academic record.
What do people get wrong about grades from Norway?
- Reading a Norwegian C as an American C. Under ECTS definitions it describes solid work meeting the expected standard.
- Assuming E is a fail. E is the minimum pass in Norway; only F fails.
- Converting letters straight into US grade points. The underlying definitions differ, so the arithmetic misleads.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Norway?
Each destination below publishes its own typical entry requirement for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. The last column restates that bar in Norway's own grading terms, so you can hold it against your actual transcript instead of converting in your head.
The last column is a double conversion — the destination's bar onto the US 4.0 scale and then onto Norway's, so its uncertainty is wider than a single conversion and it is shown as a range for that reason. Treat it as orientation, and check the course page for the bar that actually binds. How this is worked out.
Only destinations whose entry requirement we have read and cited appear here. Several countries publish no numeric bar at all — France admits on the dossier, Japan by entrance examination — and others we simply have not researched yet. An absent row never means “no requirement”.
The last column links the organisations that maintain each country's programme data — we hold none of it ourselves, and none of them can tell you whether you will be admitted. Several countries have no single national directory for postgraduate study at all: master's applications go straight to the university, so the course page is the authoritative source.
How do grades from Norway compare, side by side?
Each of these sets Norway against one destination in detail — the two grading cultures, the traps specific to that direction, and the converter preset for the route:
- Norway vs United States grading system
- Norway vs United Kingdom grading system
- Norway vs Canada grading system
- Norway vs Germany grading system
- Norway vs Australia grading system
Applying to the US or Canada? Read the WES credential evaluation guide before you order — choosing the wrong report type is the most common (and costly) mistake.
What do these grading terms mean?
- GPA (Grade Point Average)
- The US way of expressing an overall grade, on a 0–4.0 scale where 4.0 is the top — so a 4.0 is roughly what a 90–100% or a First Class would be elsewhere.
- Percentage scale
- A 0–100 marking scale — but the numbers are not comparable across countries: 70% is an outstanding result in the UK and a modest one in India.
- Credits / credit hours
- A measure of how much a subject counts toward your degree — bigger subjects carry more credits and pull your average further.
- Transcript
- The official document from your university listing every subject you took and the grade you got — not the same as your degree certificate, and universities abroad want both.
Frequently asked questions
Is a good grade in Norway still good abroad?
The A–F letters look immediately familiar to American readers, and that familiarity is misleading in one specific way: the Norwegian scale is criterion-referenced against ECTS definitions, where C is explicitly described as a good result meeting the standard expected — not the mediocre grade a C signals in the United States. A Norwegian B is a strong result. Anyone converting letter-for-letter into a US GPA will systematically understate a Norwegian transcript.
Is a degree from Norway accepted for a master's abroad?
Norwegian bachelor's degrees run three years under Bologna, followed by a two-year master's. Public universities charge no tuition to most students, and admission is correspondingly competitive on academic record.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Norway?
It depends on the destination, and the spread is wide. Stated on Norway's own scale, the typical taught-master's bar works out at roughly: Australia 2–3 / 5, Netherlands 2–3 / 5, New Zealand 2–3 / 5. Across the 12 destinations whose entry requirements we have read and cited, the lowest bar is Australia at about 2–3 / 5. These are typical requirements, not guarantees — selective programmes ask for more, and each figure is a conversion, so treat it as orientation and check the course page.
Can you study abroad with a low grade from Norway?
Often yes, but be specific rather than hopeful about it. The lowest published bar among the destinations we hold data for is Australia at roughly 2–3 / 5 on Norway's scale, so a result below that clears no destination on our list on grades alone. Below the bar the route is not closed — conversion, qualifying and pre-master's programmes exist in most countries and are designed for exactly this — but expect to need one, and expect grades to matter more where the programme is competitive. Convert your own grade above to see which bars it actually clears.